Sweetwater Union High School District

Sweetwater Seamless Summer: Free summer meals for ALL children 18 and under

School may soon be out for summer in the Sweetwater Union High School District, but the need to feed hungry children continues here and across San Diego County. Starting Monday, June 11th and continuing through Friday, June 29th, Sweetwater Union HSD will offer meals at 15 locations across the communities we serve. Sites include 14 Sweetwater Union HSD schools and, in an innovative new partnership, the Westfield Plaza Bonita Mall. When all sites are operating at once, we expect to serve over 3,000 meals per week.

“We recognize that many families rely on the school meal program to provide fresh and healthy meals for their children, and this program allows us to maintain that service to families all year round,” says Sweetwater Director of Nutrition Services Eric Span. “Statistically, just 1 out of 7 children who qualify for free or reduced price meals during the school year eats a summer lunch, and we’d like to close that gap and provide that nutrition to the communities and children that we serve.”

Summer meals are made possible through a USDA program, which allows children 18 years of age and under to receive a meal at no cost, with no paperwork or forms required. The new partnership this year with Westfield Plaza Bonita and the National City Police Department is making the program available at a highly visible and trafficked public space.

“Our school sites are familiar, safe and trusted spaces for our families, and so we will always want to be accessible at those sites,” says Span. “And this year, adding our program location at Westfield Plaza Bonita helps us to reach out into the community even further, by offering our service at a popular gathering spot for so many of the students and families we serve.”

National City Police Department Lieutenant Robert Rounds values the relationship NCPD has with the youth in National City. “We constantly look for creative opportunities to partner with other organizations in order to reach out and connect with the community,” he says. “The Summer Meals program is a worthwhile event, and we are proud to welcome the Sweetwater Union High School District into the National City Police Department Community Storefront at Plaza Bonita to serve free lunches to our community’s youth.”

Seamless Summer meals program kicks off on Monday, June 11th at 11am, with a celebration at Westfield Plaza Bonita mall. Head to the National City Police Department storefront at the Northeast Level 1 mall entrance, near the parking garage, for a first look and taste of summer meals offered. Plaza Bonita will host summer meals from 10:30 am-1:00 pm Monday-Friday from June 11-29.

Schedules and menus are posted on the district and Nutrition Services websites, and sent to parents and families via emails and handouts from each school. To make it even easier to find a summer meals location nearby, parents and students can use a text-based meals location finder from the California Dairy Council. Text FOOD (English) or COMIDA (Spanish) to 877-877 to receive information on summer meal locations closest to you.

“We want this program to have as few barriers as possible,” says Span. “So any way that we can reach our community and make this program easy and accessible is beneficial to everyone.”

All children 18 years and under are welcome to Seamless Summer at any of our locations. Even if you don’t normally qualify for free or reduced-price meals, we hope to see you this summer!

List of Sweetwater Union High School District Summer Meals Sites(all meals served Monday-Friday, June 11-29)